To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Triumph Essays - Greek Mythology

To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph In the poem "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph", Anne Sexton alludes to the flight of Icarus and Daedalus and to "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing" to convey a message to a friend. I think this poem was written to reassure a friend that what she did was the right thing. Perhaps a father figure of the friend advised her to do something and she defied him, making herself feel worried that she did the wrong thing. William Butler Yeats once wrote a poem titled "To a Friend Whose Work has Come to Nothing". It was a poem believed to be written to reassure a friend that what she ended up doing was a noble thing even though in reality she failed her original task. The title of Sexton's poem is an obvious allusion to Yeats' poem. Sexton changed "Nothing" to "Triumph" in her title. Sexton's friend must have been a fellow poet to be able to catch the allusion to Yeats' poem. I believe she wanted her friend to know that what she did was the right thing. Perhaps she compared her friend to Yeats' friend. Sexton wrote "Think of the difference it made!" referring to Icarus' flight. She might have wanted her friend to realize a difference her defying her father made. The final line of the poem has a comparably different tone than the first 13 lines. The last line, "See him acclaiming the sun and come plunging down while his sensible daddy goes straight into town.", seems more mocking of Daedalus' flight. It seems that Sexton feels that Daedalus' flight was a wasted chance and was in no way adventurous. She might also be comparing her friend to Icarus, seeing as he too failed his initial task but accomplished something greater on a global scale. I believe Sexton thought that Icarus' flight was not foolish or a failure, but adventurous and a great personal success, even though his satisfaction and personal glory was short-lived. She wrote "Admire his wings", "wondrously tunneling", and "Who cares that he fell back to the sea", therefore I think that she doesn't believe that the fact Icarus plunged to the sea is important. Many have used the process of allusion in the past to help convey a meaning of a poem. A popular example and choice of an allusion topic is the bible or past works of art and literature. Anne Sexton obviously chose allusion as her method of conveying her emotional message to her friend.

buy custom Identity in Cyber Culture essay

buy custom Identity in Cyber Culture essay Very few technologies if any, in documented human history can rival the Internet when it comes to speed of adoption; range of impact and potential diversity of its users (Dery, 1996). Perhaps, only the printing press could come close in comparison with the Internet, with the Internet still winning hands down when it comes to the speed of adoption and rate of reproduction (Dery, 1996). The internet has permeated every aspect of human life today, from business to religion, from politics to entertainment, from professional practice to recreation (Dery, 1996). That rate of adoption has produced an equally gigantic social-cultural impact on the global society, with the World Wide Web helping transforming how people shop, live, interact, learn, trade, spend their time, solve problems. These are the particulars, which define cyberculture (Levy, 2001). A very important element of cyberculture and which is a central foundation of thus paper is how people interact while in online platforms. Cyberculture has induced a dramatic shift in inter-personal interaction, in work culture (colleague relations), inter-group and intra-group relations etc. A close inspection of these interactions, show an ever-reducing importance of personal identity, where the individual exists just as another entity without a personal quality (Dodge Kitchin, 2000). In social media platforms like Face book for instance, a person is only conceived as a friend, a comment, a post etc, without respect to native languages, ages, genders, nationalities etc (Dodge Kitchin, 2000). A good elaboration of individual identity is lst in cyberculture and which will be reviewed in detail hereunder is blogging. An individual can decide to comment on any issue, political, medical, social, legal etc regardless of being an expert in that field or not. That comment will be evaluated by other bloggers and readers on its own merit; in complete disregard of the one who commented. Unlike any form of interactions in the physical world, a comment is regarded as an entry, wholesome as it is, and judged on its own merits without the bias of its source. Once other bloggers read the entry, they also comment and one key characteristic of such comments is that they comment on the initial entry and never on the person who made it. The consequence of such loss of personal identity is grievous at the very least. People gain the permissive attitude that lets them say or do whatever they want. People lose any inhibition, any answerability; any sense of accountability. Misinformation, amoral conduct, antisocial behaviors and even irresponsible social interactions thus become a norm since the participants know that there is no chance for the same vice being attributed to them in their real personal identity. Whenever people are not held accountable and responsible of their actions and conduct, they become more amoral than moral. Again, unlike in any other arena of the social dynamics of the physical world, cyberculture enables people to do whatever they please since nothing is attributable to anybody. It is like a maze in which people can lose themselves into like shadows and be as wanton as they wish before taking up their real identities afterwards. Pornography, fraud projeects, unsavory talk, hate-campaigns are just examples of the problems created by the cybercultures misplacement of personal identity. Yet cyberculture must not be wholly conceived as an area of interaction of persons in terms of social exchanges alone (Levy, 2001). Cyberculture encompasses much more than blogging and social media networking. Since its inception, the internet has become a dynamic and progress avenue to exchange intellectual thought (Levy, 2001). In around 1970s, the internet (a project of the US Army itself) was used mainly for information exchange and transmission where scientist, researchers, academics, mathematicians, medical practitioners, legal operatives etc. exchanged their information, retrieved information and uploaded their new findings as contribution to the available body of knowledge (Levy, 2001). That was even the advent of multimedia technology as a component of the cyberculture. Cyberculture was then conceived in a purely functional basis and personal identity was prime, since individuals wanted to strongly identify with their contributions. That is why most o the academic papers online, then and still now, have a preferential place for authors realistic identity, qualifications and position in the society. In essence therefore, as expounded by Baase (1997), whenever cyberculture imposes the need for personal identity, it becomes positively organized, beneficial and highly productive. When personal identity is left out of the cyberculture, the products are largely and objectively unpalatable, destructive, obscene and amoral. Buy custom Identity in Cyber Culture essay

Financial Report Degree Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Financial Report Degree - Case Study Example Monsoon plc deals in branded variety of clothing, footwear and accessories comprising two major chains i.e., Monsoon and Accessorize. The company caters to a wide range of customers young and old, male and female, babies and children. Apart from clothing and accessories, the company also deals in home ware for instance, bed and bath lines, curtains, and other home products (Company Info, accessed 06.04.2006). Blacks Leisure plc is a high street chain of superstores engaged in outdoor clothing and footwear business all over the United Kingdom having around 104 stores across the country. The company has a diversified customer market and its store design reflect this orientation. It provides clothing and travelling products to a wide range of customers of all ages and kind. It deals in several brands and provides a range of products relating to the outdoor activities and adventure most specifically clothing, tents, outdoor equipments, accessories and instruments The comparison and evaluation presented in this report is significant in the sense that it practically employs a wide variety of financial ratios to assess the financial position and performance of both the companies. ... This comparison would assist these users in forming a rationale for their major decision-making i.e., strategic planning, investment and funds lending etc. RATIO ANALYSIS- BLACKS LEISURE GROUP PLC & MONSOON PLC Ratio analysis is the best tool to evaluate a company's performance and identify problems (Meigs & Meigs, 1993). Riahi-Belkaoui (1998) comments that financial ratios are meant to make the information in financial statements interpretable for the various users of financial statements. Similarly, we will assess and analyse the financial position and performance of the two companies Blacks Leisure plc and Monsoon plc using a broad array of financial ratios from the viewpoints of management, lenders and investors separately. Analysis For Management Management needs to analyse its performance and efforts put into the corporate affairs through the company's financial results so as to realise their strengths and weaknesses. Riahi-Belkaoui (1998, p11) says, "the profitability ratios portray ability of the firm to efficiently use the capital committed by stockholders and lenders to generate revenues in excess of expenses". Therefore, the analysis from the management aspect has been done with the help of following profitability ratios: Ratios Blacks Leisure Plc Monsoon Plc Gross Profit Ratio 53.07% 61.51% Net Profit Ratio 6.54% 15.66% Return on Capital Employed 20.23% 42.76% The Gross Profit Margin Percentage evaluates the percentage of profit earned by a company on sales after the production and distribution activities (Mcmenamin, 1999). It shows how well the company manages its expenses so as to attain maximum profit out of its total sales. Monsoon plc's gross profit ratio of 61.51% reflects that the company

Homework Problem Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Homework Problem - Assignment Example Question 3: The University of Iowa is experimenting with a blend of soil amendments to be used in an analysis of variance study of the response of tomatoes to various amounts of sunlight.   To perform this study, all other elements must be controlled so that the only variable is the sunlight.   The minimum requirements for calcium, phosphorous, and potassium are 125 pounds, 150 pounds, and 120 pounds respectively.   The soil amendment mixture from Prairie Gold consist of 25% calcium, 25% phosphorous, 14% potassium, and 36% other ingredients.   It costs $0.60 per ounce.   The mixture from Grinell Grow is 20% calcium, 25% phosphorous, 25% potassium, and 30% other ingredients.   It sells for $0.80 per ounce Formulate a linear programming model that will allow the University of Iowa to conduct this experiment using a minimum cost blend of the two soil amendment mixtures. State clearly the Objective Function and the Constraints (if any) Question 5: Given these parameters:   ÃŽ » = 25 per hour, ÃŽ ¼ = 30 per hour, and Wq  = .3 hours, calculate the average number of customers in the system, average number of customers in the queue, and the average time a customer spends in the system using Littles Formulas. Question 6: An investor studied the percentage rates of return of three different gold funds. Random samples of percentage rates of return for four periods were taken from each fund. The results appear in the table

Under what conditions could it make sense to combine private and Essay

Under what conditions could it make sense to combine private and public warehouses in a logistical system - Essay Example Private warehouses are those ones that are owned by the companies for their manufacturing and storage purposes. These warehouses are operated by the companies to store their products. These companies tend to have enough resources to buy their own warehouses using large areas and money to buy the place. These warehouses are beneficial as they are a one-time cost for the company and they can design these warehouses as per their own needs and product demands; for example controlling atmosphere for edible products (Ismail, 2008). On the other hand, some companies use public warehouses. These warehouses are owned by the public sector but are given on lease or rent to the companies who need them to store their products mostly for a temporary period of time. These warehouses can be expensive and not always available. However, companies may choose them because of their location in the center or near to the manufacturers. Mostly small scale companies lease these warehouses as they don’t have enough resources to buy their own warehouses whereas large companies buy their own warehouses to avoid inconvenience (Ismail, 2008). The third type of warehouses that companies may go for is contract warehouses. These warehouses are combined of private and public warehouses. Companies chose these warehouses for several reasons and decide to combine the private and public warehouses for their logistical system. These warehouses are chosen by the companies because contract warehouses operate on a contract basis with a long-term relationship maintained which lowers the cost as compared to an average public warehouse. Contract warehouses can also benefit in operations such as flexibility, expertise, and economies of scale as equipment, labor, management, and risk is shared amongst a number of clients (Voortman, 2004). Companies thus combine private and

Influence Of The Philosophy Of Plato On Psychology Philosophy Essay

Influence Of The Philosophy Of Plato On Psychology Philosophy Essay In the ideals and methods of todays psychological medicine, the general psyche of the human mind has been influenced by historical and cultural forces, and various perspectives through time. Philosophers such as Plato has developed many methods and types of thoughts in understanding the human psyche that has greatly influenced the many defined concepts of psychology as known today. In Platos question how we know what à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Is? Is the underlying fundamental question that relates to the human psyche. As individuals, how do we really know what to know? For example, if you do not understand in how to tune a musical instrument, you will have to ask fundamentals questions in order to understand how to tune a musical instrument. As in the human psyche, Platos asks the same question in order to understand the concept in how people know. Psyche is based on the theory of justice that has six fundamentals aspects such as: faculties, principles, activities, aspects, instances and levels. Their nature and role have been characterized in ways influenced as much perhaps by the connotations of these terms as by the details of Platos text. Subsequently, Psychology has been developed from the origins of the earliest philosophers such as Plato; an Athenian born Greek philosopher that believed that people were a blank slate at birth which can be changed to anything thro ugh their life time depending on the influence of surroundings (Various). In his quest of finding the true essence of the human psyche and the pursuit of the maintenance of the soul, Plato has philosophized through the teachings of Socrates within various concepts such as: Metaphysics Platonic realism, Theory of Forms. Platonism the basis of Metaphysics is referred to the intellectual consequences of denying, as Socrates often does, the reality of the material world. Platos metaphysics is understood as Socrates division of reality into the warring and irreconcilable domains of the material and the spiritual (Taylor, 1936). The theory has been of incalculable influence in the history of Western psychology, philosophy and religion. Similar to Socratess idea that reality is unavailable to those who use their senses is what puts him at odds with the common man, and with common sense. Socrates says that he who sees with his eyes is blind, and this idea is most famously captured in his Allegory of the Cave, and more explicitly in his description of the divided line. According to Socrates, physical objects and physical events are shadows of their ideal or perfect forms, and exist only to the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves. Just as shadows are temporary, inconsequential epi phenomena produced by physical objects, physical objects are themselves fleeting phenomena caused by more substantial causes, the ideals of which they are mere instances (Taylor, 1936). Second philosophical concept that has influence modern psychology is the theory of forms. It is Platos belief that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only a shadow of the real world, as depicted in Socrates Allegory of the Cave. Forms are based on archetypes or abstract representations of the many types and properties (that is, of universals) of things we see all around us. The sensible world we know today was based on belief that the physical perception is a rendering or copy of the true perception (Moline, 1981). Past philosophers believed that we are born into world of ignorance that we cannot truly see the meaning what is truly is, as depicted in the Allegory of the Cave. This concept of rendering reality is called forms, that physical objects and physical events are shadows of their ideal or perfect forms, and exist only to the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves. Just as shadows are temporary, inconsequential epiphenomena produced by physical objects, physical objects are themselves fleeting phenomena caused by more substantial causes, the ideals of which they are mere instances (Moline, 1981). As a result, as depicted in The Allegory of the Cave, Plato shows how the mind influences perception that has greatly influenced Western psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Hence the men in Platos fable are used to show that one should venture out and become more educated because if not, one will slip back into a less cognitive state of mind (Fitz-Randolph, 2009). In comparison, Sigmund Freud believed that a persons dreams are fulfilled wishes. These wishes are unachieved accomplishments that the individual dwells on. He proves his theory by referring to a controllable dream of his about thirst. He believed that because he ate salty food before bed, he could fall asleep, dream about drinking, and wake up satisfied. Freud thought that the dreams are able to compensate ones unsatisfied wishes (Fitz-Randolph, 2009). They are actually thoughts that the mind has gathered while a person is awake. The mind, as thought by Freud, is able to twist real observations in a way whic h pleases the individual in an unconscious state. Both Plato and Freud have valid portrayals of how the mind works. By presenting their information in a story-like fashion, the reader is able to better relate to and comprehend the otherwise somewhat complex issue. Since Freud is a psychologist, one may wonder if he had similar views as Plato when it came to developmental psychology and the development of cognitive thinking. Additionally, Carl Jungs idea of the Collective Unconscious is so in alignment with these earlier ideas from Plato. The notion of Absolute Forms, for example, along with Jungs methods of systematic inquiry foreshadows Jungs theories of archetype and the analytic process investigation (Fitz-Randolph, 2009). According to Jung, the Collective Unconscious exists as a kind of repository for dreams, archetypes, symbols, and myths. Yet like Plato before him, Jungs intuitively derived understanding needed empirical verification if it was to be taken seriously. Thus, in his autobiographical memoir, Memories, Dreams, and Reflection, Jung sets out to explain exactly how he arrived at his notion of the Collective Unconscious and archetype through his journey of self-observation (Fitz-Randolph, 2009). Both Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, two of the greatest psychologist/thinkers of the twentieth century, used the term unconscious but each defined it differently. The one thing they agreed on, however, is that the unconscious is that part of the psyche inaccessible to the ego. It is only when the ego drops its guard such as in dreams that the unconscious expresses itself. But here the similarities between the two men diverge. To Freud, who had been Jungs teacher, the unconscious contains that which is repressed or forgotten while remaining within the individual psyche. It becomes a sort or repository for forgotten things of ones past. It is exclusively personal in nature and belongs to the individual person alone. In other words, it contains no commonly held or universal archetypes such as understood by Jung. Jung maintained, on the other hand, that yes there is something like Freuds personal unconscious but this merely rests or floats upon an infinite collective unconscious which does not at all derive from the personal unconscious (Fitz-Randolph, 2009). Instead it comes to the individual as a part of something universal in nature. Its contents and modes of behavior, says Jung, are essentially the same everywhere and in all individuals. This is not to say that it expresses itself the same in all individuals only that the archetypal patterns are universally present. The actual psyche is known only by its contents. In other words, it is seen only by what the individual actually expresses through action. But with the collective unconscious no such expression is available except through dreams and the various archetypes that make themselves known via behaviors and obsessions. The personal unconscious, according to Jung, is far greater than storage for past traumas and emotional history as Freud would contend. Instead, it serves as a pathway to the collective unconscious and is constantly being fed by those deep reservoirs (Fitz-Randolph, 2009). All great ideas and concepts have been derived from the great thinkers of the past. As in Plato, one of the greatest and foremost prodigies of Socrates has influenced some of the brightest minds of psychology such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The ideals of forms and meta-physics have evolved the basis of modern psychology as we know today.

Censorship: Freedom Or Suppression ? :: essays research papers

Censorship: Freedom or Suppression ? Government censorship can be looked at as a blessing or an unneeded burden. I personally feel that all censorship is completely unnecessary and should be found unconstitutional. It is the countless moral views that bring no right answer for what should and should not be censored. I know that the governments version of censorship varies greatly from mine, just as mine does from a world wide view.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The citizens of the United States are living in a pure democracy that has given us all first amendment rights. This alone should mean that their should be no government intervention on a code of ethics or morality. This should mean that we as citizens should be allowed complete freedom of our own choices. Our government was set up to make laws and to keep our society in order. They were doing a fine job until they started making decisions for us on what is or isn't decent. The most recent example of this is the Communication Decency Act of 1996(Located in the Telecommunications Act Of 1996). This act more or less states that the Internet should be censored and be given restrictions. The first issue this brings up is who owns the Internet. No one really owns it because it is really thousands of computer networked together. The main backbone of the Internet was originally made up of government funded universities and other government institutions. However that is no longer the case. Now the majority of the Internet is run and operated by independent services and everyday citizens. The Internet is a modern day symbol of the freedom of speech we have in our society. The government has no right to tell us what we can and can not do in our homes. No one is forcing anyone to go to any specific area of the Internet for anything. These are all choices made with our own free will. I feel that the government is clearly violating the fine line between church and state. The Job of the church is to keep up moral and ethical standards in our world. Obviously the government got the wrong job description for clearly they are violating the trust they have in the Church doing its job.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I know that if they put me in charge of censorship things would be a lot different from how they are today. The first step I would make would be censoring all Ex-lax and Imodium D commercials. I find it extremely peculiar that these commercials always seem to appear right during dinner.

Compare and Contrast: Capital One 360 to Dezurik

Company OverviewFrom an operations management perspective, we compared and contrasted Capital One 360 to Dezurik. We looked at many different aspects of both businesses in relation to various operational and business elements. We conclude that both corporations have significant differences based on manufacturing versus service operations. Dezurik is a pure manufacturing company, which was founded in 1928, while Capital One 360 is a pure service company that was founded in 2013. Dezurik designs and manufactures valves for use in commercial and residential applications. Capital One 360 provides online banking options to consumers in the United States.Topics CoveredOur goal in this business report is to compare and contrast Capital One 360 and Dezurik based upon the following categories:Service vs Manufacturing contrastBusiness and Operations StrategyProcess Design and Supply Chain, Flow ChartTQM, Jit, Six SigmaKanban, KaizanSWOT AnalysisCapacity PlanningLayout and DesignRecommendations In summary, both companies are making short and long-term adjustments to prepare themselves for the years ahead. By implementing our original  recommendations within each company, they will both become more efficient and effective companies as a whole.Manufacturing often provides services, and services often provide tangible goods. Dezurik is a pure manufacturing company, whereas Capital One 360 is a pure service company. Dezurik designs, develops, and manufactures tangible products that are valves and inventories them inside their manufacturing facility. Dezuriks plant equipment is used solely for the production of their valves and related products. The dezurik manufacturing company has low customer contact and a longer customer response time. In contrast to Dezuriks pure manufacturing company, Capital One 360’s pure service corporation handles their business much differently.Capital One 360 has intangible products that cannot be inventoried. Capital one 360 has high custo mer contact and can be reached 24/7. They offer many different ways to service customers such as in their cafes, calling and talking to a real capital one associate, blogging, and also offer a mobile app. The cafà © allows customers to interact with Capital One 360 employees and the employees working behind the counter are educated in their business. Capital One 360 has a short response time; customers can go online to access their accounts which saves them time and money. They are also labor intensive and have around 450 associates working in their St. Cloud office.Although Dezurik and Capital One 360 differ in terms of service vs manufacturing, they share many similarities. Both corporations use technology. Dezurik uses modern up-to-date technology in the machines they use to manufacture valves, as well as in their 3-D solid modeling of valve parts and assemblies. Capital One 360 also uses technology by offering services over the web, phone, ATM or by mail. Both companies have qu ality, productivity, and response issues that must be dealt with on a daily basis to maintain customer satisfaction. Both companies must have forecast demand and each will have capacity, layout and location issues.Both Dezurik and Capital One 360 have business and operations strategies in place to ensure success in their respective businesses. Dezurik has a strategy of giving their customers high quality products that will withstand the test of time.   Capital One 360 wants to give the consumer an easy to use product that is incredibly efficient and environmentally friendly. Both companies have  strategies that are similar, while others are completely different from each other. Dezurik, being a pure manufacturing company, needs to focus more of their work on their manufacturing process.In order to produce the valves they need, they must regulate their supply to correlate with their demand. This can be shown in their manufacturing process. Dezurik has some valves that they are ma ss producing all of the time. They also are able to take on project builds for custom sizes and designs. These are two different segments of Dezurik which require two different business strategies. The first strategy that Dezurik has is to be continuously producing their standard size valves. This is a fairly straight forward operations strategy. Keep up with the demand for the valves, and at the same time maintain an efficient product assembly line. The second strategy has to do with their special product order segment. They do this in several different ways.The first is to complete the projects in house, which shares the same as the previous strategy. The second strategy is to have one of their teams build and complete their projects on site. This typically happens when they work on a project with components that are too big to build in house. The business strategy for Dezurik is much different. They want to become the largest producer of valves in the world. They do this by outso urcing some of their components to China, which brings down production costs. They also need to be certified to be sold in other countries around the world. They are trying to expand internationally and build up partnerships and relationships with governments and companies from around the world. In order to keep these relationships intact, Dezurik has a full time service team that travels around the world to ensure that their products are working correctly and that they have satisfied customers.Capital One 360 shares some similarities with Dezurik in their business strategies, but is completely different with their operations strategies. To begin, Capital One 360 is a pure service company. They have around the clock customer service to provide help and services to their customers. This is similar to Dezurik, but on a much larger scale. Since Capital One 360 has no physical locations, they need a much larger service department to help satisfy the demands of their customers. Their ser vice department does differ in that they do not need to travel around the world to help their customers, rather they can do it all from their computer with just a few clicks of the mouse.Capital One  360 has a unique business strategy for the banking industry. All of their banking business is done online. This means they have no physical banks. Also, all the money they have is virtual. This means they will need a large technical service department to help keep everything that is online, sorted out. Their operations strategies are different from Dezurik in several ways. First, Capital One 360 does everything online. They do have a sale department, but they never have to leave their cubicle to make a sale. This is different than Dezurik who may have to send their sales person out to a job site in order to ensure that the product they receive will be correct.While these two companies do share business strategies, their operational strategies do tend to be further apart from each othe r. Dezuriks process design supports product manufacturability and defines their product characteristics of appearance, materials, dimensions, and performance standards. Dezurik’s process design starts with the idea that customers need better valves. Dezurik uses a hands-on philosophy that begins with design. They then use modern computer aided design systems to construct 3-D models of valves and assemblies. From here, the models are transferred to an area where stress tests are performed on the models. The final step in Dezurik’s process design is continually analyzing and adding safety factors to the models to ensure long-term reliability.The flow chart inside Dezurik’s manufacturing facility starts at the loading docks. Here, ready to go shipments of valves are placed. As you enter further into the facility, the size of the valves placed in inventory decrease from 72 ’’all the way down to 3’’. This ensures that heavier and harder to move valves are placed closer to the loading dock to improve efficiency. Dezurik also uses intermittent operations, which means they produce a variety of products in lower volumes. Intermittent operations are used because different valves have different processing needs. This causes the workers to perform different tasks, and during the tour we learned that some workers switched stations on a daily basis. Dezurik has multiple buyers who want different specifications for every valve they receive.This creates a batch process within the manufacturing facility allowing Dezurik to separate one customers order from another customers order. Dezurik’s designing process and consideration consists of make-to-order strategy. Moving away from Dezurik and into Capital One 360, there is contrast in the design of services that  Capital One 360 has vs Dezurik’s design of goods. Capital One 360’s service design is unique in that the service and entire service concept are bein g designed. However, they are similar in which product and service design must match the need and preferences of the targeted customer group. Capital One 360’s flow chart differs from Dezuriks flow chart. Capital One 360 does not flow from one end of the building to the other in a line; instead they have different floors within their building where they communicate back and forth.This creates a batch process where each floor is a batch working on a different project then the other floors. This is also called intermittent operations where Capital One’s resources are grouped together by function. The overall efficiency at Capital One 360 is around 65%. Both Capital One 360 and Dezurik have Total Quality Management plans in place to help ensure that their customers get the products and services that they want. Capital One 360 has different banking plans that have been developed to help cover a wide range of customers. Basically, they have standardized their products to he lp ensure efficiency and to keep costs lower.Dezurik on the other hand, has many different products and services that can be produced based on what the customer wants. This may not be as efficient, but it gives them the advantage in securing business that cannot be obtained by companies that incorporate standardization. Dezurik also does a ton of product testing to ensure that the customer is getting a product that is guaranteed to last a long time. Capital One 360 and Dezurik also work with JIT. Just In time production can be shown more effectively in Dezurik since it is a pure manufacturing company. They use a pull system for production which causes them to have an inventory of their products. They can increase or decrease their production of certain models based upon forecasting.Capital One 360 does not focus as much on Just-in-Time manufacturing, rather they spend more of their time using TQM and respect for people. Since they are purely a service company, They are constantly wo rking with people to ensure that they have an enjoyable experience banking with Capital One 360. If Capital One 360 doesn’t respect their customers, it would be extremely easy for their customers to take their business to another bank. Like Capital One360, they also need to focus on TQM. They need to constantly be updating their products and services to give the customer want they want. They need to be surveying and working with their customers all the time to help them  develop effective strategies in the online banking world.Capital One 360 does focus a lot on Six Sigma. They have people in house that are constantly working to help make the company more efficient and effective. Basically, there are only four defects per million opportunities. This forces Capital One 360 to run incredibly lean. A few ways they do this is by going completely paperless. This saves a ton of money, as well as paper. Another way Six Sigma has been useful to Capital One 360 is in processing time . They have reduced the amount of time it takes to pull up and process a customer when they are on a service call. This is critical because the faster they can make their customer service process, the faster they can help more people. By doing some serious improvements to Capital One 360, they have become incredibly lean and efficient. This is different than Dezurik.They can’t run Six Sigma because they take on custom jobs. These can be made more efficient, but to run a whole company Six Sigma test just is not practical.Dezurik follows Kaizen, continuous improvement, which requires the company to continually strive to get better at manufacturing valves through learning and problem solving. One way they comply to Kaizen is in their testing room, where they test their valves to see where any improvement can be made. Dezurik uses a pull system where communication is made possible through the use of kanban cards. These kanban cards consist of the product name, the part number, an d the quantity that needs to be produced. The kanban cards are attached to a group of Dezurik’s products.When the employees need products from a preceding workstation, they pass the kanban to that station. This kanban authorizes the worker at the preceding station to produce the amount of goods specified on the kanban. These kanban cards are placed in visible areas for everyone to see. There are as many kanban cards in the system as there are batches of products or valves. This allows Dezurik to continually improve the efficiency of their system. In contrast, Capital One 360 does not have kanban cards, but they do follow the Kaizen approach of continuous improvement. Capital One 360 is constantly trying to help their customers save time and money. They are doing this in part by offering simple financial products such as giving fee-free checking and savings that they can access from their own computers. They are also continually trying  to find ways to outpace and outperform their competitors.This approach forces Capital One 360 to continually improve their business functions in order to get a step ahead of competitors. Layout and design for Both companies is incredibly different. Dezurik, being a pure manufacturing company, has their main office, and they also have a large warehouse where they manufacture their valves. The front office of Dezurik is rather old. This works for them because they don’t necessarily need to keep up with the newest, up-to-date technology to make their valves. Instead of investing money into their office, they have spent more of their money investing into newer, more efficient machines in their warehouse. They have also changed some of their design to allow for a more efficient production process. They run a pull process at Dezurik. At one end of the plant, they take in all of their supplies.The supplies then get put into an inventory rack until they are needed. The supplies are then distributed throughout the factory to where they are assembled. The first area you walk into from the supply area is where all of the standardized valves are made. They have multiple stations where one person is running about four machines constantly. These are very efficient. This is because they have outsourced the production of their standard valves to China for manufacturing. The next segment of the plant is made up of several assembly lines that produce other varieties of products. The other side of the warehouse is where all of the large valves are made. They are made here because they typically are too large to be moved across the entire plant. This end of the warehouse is also where their products get painted.The paint booths are strategically placed at the end of the assembly lines so that as soon as the products are manufactured, they can be painted. They then get sent off to testing. All the valves they make are tested to ensure that the product can withstand the pressures of daily use for years. After th e products are tested, they are either loaded onto trucks and sent off, or put into the warehouse until they are needed. Capital One 360 has a completely different layout than Dezurik. To start out, They are in a very modern building located right in the middle of downtown St. Cloud. When walking in the door of Capital One 360, the first thing you will notice is that you are in an ultra-modern cafà ©. Since Capital One 360 doesn’t have physical banking locations, the cafes are the closest thing that people can get.These cafes are not just for a cup of  coffee either, the people who work at these cafes are a highly knowledgeable sales associate who can make you a latte and sell you a checking account at the same time. This is for people who are either curious, or just not as comfortable with starting a new bank account online. Once past the cafà ©, Capital One 360 pretty much looks like almost every other office building except for a few key features. The first is that All the departments are located separate from each other. Sales is located on one floor, while fraud protection is located on another floor. Capital One 360 also has an interesting layout design. The cubicles are very different from your traditional office building.To start, they run diagonally across the entire floor. They also are much shorter than a normal cubicle. This is so people can locate each other without having to walk across the office to find out they are not there. They also are not enclosed. This promotes an open workspace that allows people to communicate information quickly and efficiently. Another interesting aspect is that they only have about 60 percent of their office filled with employees. This is so that they can grow and add on employees at any time. The new employees can start and have their own functional workspace instantly.Capital One 360 also has a central command area located right in the middle of the office. This is where security works. Also this comman d center has TV monitors that are linked up with their other offices around the country. This feature is so they all can be working together with their offices all around the country. If something happens at their Delaware office, they can get it verified by their office in St. Cloud.Capacity planning within Capital One 360 and Dezurik are decisions that depend tremendously upon forecasts of demand. These forecasts determine the size of current and future capacity needs. Capital One 360 recently put their capacity planning into effect when they purchased ING Direct and moved into a new building downtown St. Cloud. Capital One 360 made the choice to expand now enabling it to meet customer demand not only for now, but also in the future. If Capital One 360 planned its capacity incorrectly, they may find that they don’t have enough output capability to meet customer demands, or has too much capacity sitting idle. Capital One 360’s move into the new building required long- term commitments and expensive resources.This move  of purchasing a new building came in anticipation of greater demand from their customers. To measure Capital One 360’s capacity, you need the amount of available capacity and the effectiveness of capacity use. From our tour of Capital One 360, we determined that their capacity was operating at an efficient level. When examining Dezurik’s capacity planning, we looked at their recent expansion. In 2011, Dezurik acquired two water and wastewater brands and then in 2012 Dezurik acquired a valve company. This tells us that Dezurik is expanding to meet customer demands in the future. These recent acquires to Dezurik increases capacity and allows them to meet customer demands as well as sales.We can reasonably measure Dezurik’s capacity by measuring their input, which is labor hours, with their output, which are valves per shift. However this is not a very effective method to measure capacity because Dezurik produce s many types of valves. We believe that Dezurik is having success because of its focused factory that responds more efficiently to demand. In todays’ world, large factories need to be more flexible and focused, and from the tour, we believe Dezurik is doing a good job of staying agile within the industry.This will help Dezurik identify long-term capacity requirements in their forecasts of future demand. In Dezuriks planning for capacity, they have strategic and tactical decisions. Their strategic decisions consist of what investments in new machines and equipment it should make, and by the looks of it, they are investing in new machines that increase automation and decrease manual labor. Their tactical decisions consist of planning their workforce, inventories, and day-to-day use of machines. From the tour, we learned that some of the new machines run 24 hours a day. Dezurik and Capital One 360 have similarities in their capacity planning, that being that they are both prepar ing for long-term and high customer demands in the future.Let’s look at some of the strengths of Dezurik. The first strength is that they make a high quality product. Also, they have a very efficient production process for their standardized products. Another pro for Dezurik is they are working hard to become more efficient. They are implementing all sorts of new machines to help speed up and improve the manufacturing process. There are multiple weaknesses that plague Dezurik. To start, they are not an efficient company. This is mainly due to the poor layout of their production area.A second weakness is that they have begun to outsource some of their products to  China. This can be a negative because if they get a bad shipment, it can take over 6 weeks to be corrected. This could become a huge problem if they get the wrong product sent multiple times. There are a few opportunities that Dezurik can expand into. For starters, they are putting in a new paint booth. This will h elp cut down on time. Before, they outsourced their paint of some products to a place in Alexandria. This means that the product had to leave and come back before it can be shipped out.They are also making their assembly line more efficient which will really help them improve the speed at which they can produce valves. Dezurik does have some threats that they have to deal with looking into the future. The biggest threat will be imports from China and other places. These places have very low labor costs, and they also don’t have the same environmental regulations that we do. This means that they are able to produce similar products at a much cheaper price. The only flaw is that these products also tend to be of a much lower quality. This is why Dezurik has not been highly affected by this threat. Capital One 360 has multiple strengths as well. The first is they are incredible efficient.By not using any paper, they are able to cut down on the amount of waste that they have. No physical banks helps to cut down on their carbon footprint too. Second, by utilizing standardization, they are able to run a very lean company. These strengths can also be some of their weaknesses. Having no locations means that people have to do all of their banking online, or over the phone. They cannot go to the bank to talk to a person, rather they have to call into their customer service lines and do all of their problem solving over the phone. There are some opportunities that Capital One 360 has that they are taking advantage of. They are targeting the younger generation. This is because they are appealing to the tech savvy crowd.They younger generation tends to be more familiar with technology. They will be able to expand into this younger generation, and this is where their greatest opportunity will lie. In the world of banking, there are threats all over the place. For starters, all the banks are going to online banking. Most of these banks also have physical locations tha t people can go to when they have questions. Also, you will tend to be more of a number at Capital One 360. At the smaller banks, people will know you by name, and the service will be more  personal. If Capital One 360 can deal with these threats, they will be able to succeed in a threat filled environment.There are a few recommendations that could be made for both Dezurik and Capital One 360. To Start with Dezurik, we would recommend that they make some serious improvements to their factory layout. They should be able to take the supplies right off the truck and instantly put them into production. They could implement a better JIT strategy. They are doing a good job of spreading their business around the world. We would also recommend that Dezurik should go paperless. Its more sustainable, and it would help them to move towards and electronic inventory system. This would speed up their order processing time, and make them more efficient. For Capital One 360, we would recommend th at they begin to open more cafes around the United States.These are a tangible part of Capital One 360 that consumers can actually go. Also, they could provide their users with more banking options. Giving their customers banking options can be key in making them feel like they are more than just a number to Capital One 360.In Conclusion, Both Dezurik and Capital One 360 are both leaders in their respective industries. Dezurik, being a purely manufacturing company, is run completely different from Capital One 360. Being a bank, Capital One focuses their efforts on its services. This means they are more frequently talking to consumers while providing them with a service. Dezurik focuses its efforts on their manufacturing operations. Both companies compare and contrast greatly in relation to various operational elements. Overall, these are two strong companies that are innovative and leading the way in their respective fields.

Commentary for “The May Poles and Their Queen” Essay

When reading the Greek myth Orpheus, I was immediately struck by the heroism of the central character. Orpheus is the classic male hero, overcoming all obstacles to bring back his beloved Eurydice, only to be eventually thwarted by something even more powerful than his heroism: his own love. Because of the essentially classical, romanticized nature of Orpheus, I felt it would be an ideal source text for a modern-day interpretation. In order to gain a better understanding of the text, I initially adopted, in Stuart Hall’s terms, the ‘preferred’ reading; that is, how the audience are ‘meant’ to read a text, who they are expected to empathise with and what conclusions they are meant to draw. Applying Greimas’s structuralist scheme, I found it easy to identify Orpheus as the ‘subject’ or, according to Propp’s ‘spheres of influence’, the ‘hero’. Orpheus can also be identified as Propp’s ‘donor’ figure through his extraordinary skill at playing the lyre, which provides him with apparently limitless power when it comes to charming the gods of the underworld. The ‘sender’ would be Eurydice, for dying and subsequently ‘sending’ Orpheus on his quest to the underworld. The ‘villain’ could be Aristaeus for chasing Eurydice, or any of the creatures of the underworld for opposing Orpheus. Alternatively, and perhaps more interestingly, the ‘villain’ could be Orpheus’s own love, which is so strong it forces him to look back, and lose his wife forever. Eurydice can also be identified as Greimas’s ‘object’ or Propp’s ‘princess’: the ‘object’ of Orpheus’s quest, whose only ‘skill’ is to be desired by the ‘subject’, Orpheus. I also applied Tzvetan Tordorov’s theory that there is a similar narrative framework to all stories. For Todorov, a story usually begins with a state of peace and harmony, an ‘equilibrium’: Orpheus has his love, his music and is happy. This then evolves into ‘disruption’: Eurydice dies and Orpheus must journey to the underworld to bring her back. Then Orpheus attempts to repair the ‘disequilibrium’, by charming the creatures of the underworld. Next, according to Todorov, a ‘new equilibrium’ is often found. However, in Orpheus, this is not the case. Eurydice is left in the underworld and Orpheus’s head is left singing alone in the upper world, still crying out for his lost love, unable to find his ‘new equilibrium’ by being denied even unity in death. Applying these structuralist theories, I found, only served to emphasize the essentially patriarchal nature of the myth. The literary theorist Terry Eagleton talks of how â€Å"[a text’s] blindnesses, what it does not say and how it does not say it†¦ [is] maybe as important as what it articulates† (Eagleton, 1996) i.e. the ‘untold’ story, the ‘gaps’ in the original tale, can allow for additional perspectives other than the conventional, ‘preferred’ reading. In reference to Orpheus, I felt that the character of Eurydice, and her account of events, was a very important ‘blindness’, which had been largely ignored by Greek mythology. Because of this, I decided to adopt a more ‘oppositional reading’, as Hall would characterise it, and subsequently, a more ‘feminist’ approach, making Eurydice the classic hero. This opened up a variety of possibilities to me concerning the other roles. Could Orpheus (or Christian in my re-working) now become the ‘villain’, his ‘quest’, from her perspective, becoming more akin to a ‘hunting down’? The ‘object’ could now become Edie’s desire to be recognised and appreciated. Could Christian’s ‘underworld’ not be Edie’s ‘new equilibrium’? I also thought it would be interesting to strip Christian of his ‘donor’ role by making his musical talent all a faà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ade. I felt that it was a perfectly reasonable reading of the original text to believe that the reason Orpheus ‘required’ Eurydice was simply to act as his ‘muse’ and inspire him to create beautiful music. By interpreting Orpheus’ need for Eurydice on a more literal level, I could make Edie the one who was the true musician. This makes Christian’s need for her all the more desperate as, without Edie, Christian feels he can no longer be a successful musician, as is the case in the original text. I also felt that the tale of Orpheus had almost become too romanticized and was subsequently open to a parody. Consequently, I tried to create a carnivalesque interpretation, that is, exaggerate some of the key aspects of the characters until they almost become ‘grotesque’, in order to evoke humour. I decided to make my target audience aged 14-18, as I felt that they would feel comfortable with the modern-day, often egotistical, music culture, and also be open to, and appreciate, the attempt to invert the original tale’s gender stereotyping. As I wanted to create a visually dynamic as well as linguistically comical piece, I chose the genre of a television drama: a genre likely to appeal to my target audience. This also allows the piece to suddenly break out of realism in order to give the drama a distinctly surreal edge, for example, the impromptu arrival of the snake. I felt the addition of this element of ‘magical realism’ to the piece would add to the farcical nature and heighten the comedy. The opening few scenes are key to establishing the tone of the piece, and also the characters’ relationships. The opening scene of a â€Å"rock band† performing on stage is designed to grab the viewer’s attention, whilst also appealing to my target audience. Christian uses the informal register of the archetypal ‘rock star’: â€Å"We’ve been Christian and the May Poles! Goodnight!† This type of lexis has connotations of arrogance and vanity, which is designed to contrast with the stupidity of Orpheus’s kilt and also the band name ‘Christian and the May Poles’, a pun on the original ‘Maenads’. By having Edie backstage, providing the real musical talent, she initially appears a relatively oppressed, marginalised character: always forced to stay in the background: â€Å"Yeah. Well, I ain’t ‘Christian’, am I?† There is a sense that Edie has accepted the belief imposed upon her by Christian: that she is simply an accessory to his success. I gave her a distinct Northern accent in order to appear more ‘down to earth’ than her ‘rock star’ counterpart, and also to appeal more to the audience as the ‘under-dog’. Throughout, Christian is portrayed as the archetypal, vain, male ‘rock star’. I attempted to emphasize this vanity linguistically, through his self-obsessed use of language – â€Å"You’ve already got flowers. My flowers. Flowers handpicked by moi† – and also through his obsession with his eyebrows. I felt that by giving this conventionally ‘effeminate’ concern to both Christian and Al, I could further parody the ‘strong’ male stereotype associated with Greek myths. One of the key changes that I made to the original text was that in my drama, Edie runs away from Christian as opposed to â€Å"Aristaeus†. She is also willingly ‘bitten’ by the snake. By having Edie willingly leave Christian for the ‘underworld’, this is in keeping with my overall ‘feminist’ angle of approach, as it now becomes Edie’s ‘quest’ to find her role as a performer. Instead of making the characters of my ‘underworld’ subtly linked to the characters in the original myth, I decided on overstating their most obvious physical features in order to provide an out and out carnivalesque adaptation. Because of this, I decided that a theatre would be an ideal setting, and, by drawing inspiration from the character of the serpent, introduced the idea of a pantomime production of the Bible in the hope that this would generate further humour. Deliberately playing with the notion of stereotypes, that is foregrounding the whole issue, was also a comic device. Just as Christian is the ‘stereotypical rock star’, so all the characters of the underworld are stereotypical actors, as I felt this would add a new angle to these conventionally frightening characters. The use of ‘stock’ figures and the language associated with them, – such as the ‘wise’ Yorkshiremen – would also speed up audience recognition and mean the characters would not need to be individually introduced. In earlier drafts, I had attempted to give the beginning a more serious edge, in order to contrast with the absurdity of the underworld. I had incorporated monologues, in the style of Jim Cartwright’s Road, in an attempt to provide greater character insight. However, these monologues seemed to ‘jar’ with the other scenes and make the beginning appear ‘flat’, without really adding to the piece. Although they established the characters, they did so in a rather bland, pedestrian way, so these scenes were reworked. However, I still felt I had to emphasize the difference between the characters of the ‘upper world’ and those of the ‘underworld’ and one of the main ways I did this was through my choice of language. Because my chosen setting was a theatre, I wanted to give the language of the ‘underworld’ a distinct theatrical edge. One of the ways I tried to achieve this was through my use of â€Å"luvvies'† discourse, for example, the Serpent’s line â€Å"How marvellous!†, an indication of the affected register of language associated with the theatre. This inflated speech is in immediate contrast to both Christian and Edie’s more ‘down to earth’, Northern dialect and I tried to emphasize this contrast by having the two types of speech juxtaposed in order that they might ‘break against’ each other and subsequently, generate humour: â€Å"Greetings Child/Who the hell are you?† Another theatrical device which I made use of was the ‘one liner’ – a device associated with pantomime – in the hope that this would make the piece feel like a â€Å"pantomime production of Orpheus† as it were. For example the serpent’s ‘one-liner’ â€Å"I’m playing the serpent incidentally† attempts to add humour by overstatement, as I interpreted this character on a literal level and made my serpent, an actor â€Å"wearing a giant green snake costume†. This line also refers to both the pantomime production of the Bible and the original Greek myth. It will inform viewers already familiar with the myth that the ‘descent into the underworld’ is about to begin, and provide a ‘sneak preview’ into future events. The ‘wise men’, Rod, Bob and Todd were added to act as a Cerebus figure. I gave them each a pint of beer in order that they might ‘foam at the mouth’ as Cerebus was famed for doing, and made them â€Å"drunk and†¦ quite menacing† in order to, like Cerebus, be perceived as ‘vicious’. Through their physical similarity and the syntactical correspondency of their language, they are designed to appear like a ‘club-act’, finishing off each other’s sentences in an almost ‘pantomime patter’ style, in order to ‘gang up’ on Christian: â€Å"We are wise men./The wise men of Yorkshire†. I also made them speak simultaneously, in order to appear as though they are ‘one being with three heads’: â€Å"We know!† I transformed the original mythological character of Charon into another actor, Little Ron. I combined many of the traditional aspects of Charon such as the hood and cape, with sunglasses in order to contrast with Charon’s ‘blazing eyes’ motif. I also made him exceptionally short in order to dismiss any preconceptions which the audience may have of Charon being ‘spooky’ and ‘all powerful’. As opposed to Orpheus paying Charon ‘one silver coin’ to descend in the underworld, Christian instead gives Little Ron a cigarette. I felt this fitted in with my modern-day outlook and also would add a comical element by effectively having â€Å"God† smoking. One of the most dramatic changes I made to the original tale was that in my version, Edie chooses to stay in the ‘underworld’, and it is she, as opposed to Des/Hades, who sends Christian back to the ‘upper world’ with the dismissive remark â€Å"I’m an actress, Chris†. By changing the original ending, Edie has found her real existence in the underworld, and to her, it is the upper world which is full of misery. Christian, however becomes a classic picture of male melancholy: â€Å"homeless and unable to even strum his guitar.† He is an allusion to the current crisis in masculinity, a phenomenon often voiced in the media, his ‘traditional role’ as the performer taken over by his female counterpart: abandoned for â€Å"Keith Harris†. Because of this, Christian feels his masculinity has been threatened. This is then made ironic by his final effeminate cry of â€Å"My tweezers!† In the final scene, I had Edie â€Å"smiling sadistically† as she plucks her eyebrows, indicative of her mocking of Christian, a reversal of the original patriarchal tale. For whereas in the original text, it is the ‘hero’ Orpheus who ‘goes on his quest and fails’, in my transformation it is the ‘heroine’ Edie, who not only sets off on her ‘quest’ but also succeeds and ultimately, it is she who ‘comes out on top’. BIBLIOGRAPHY Philip, Neil. The Illustrated Book of Myths, (DK, 2000) Hughes, Ted. Ted Hughes’ Collected Plays for Children, (Faber, 2001) Widdicombe, Rupert. The Sunday Times, (4 September 1994, CINEMA, pages 10-11) Ross, Alison and Greatrex, Jen. A2 English Language and Literature, (Heinemann, 2001) Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory, An Introduction (Blackwell, 1996) Machery, Pierre. A Theory of Literary Production (Routlege and Kegan Paul. 1978) Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths:1 (Penguin, 1955) Vogler, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (Michael Wiese Productions, 1998) Cartwright, Jim. Road (Samuel French, 1989)

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